WARNING : Don't you judge by reading one article. This site is not for you if you cannot see the otherness of other and sufferings of both sides of the party in the conflict. Security for Israel and Justice for the Palestinians are interdependent, one will not happen without the other. My view focuses on building cohesive societies where no one has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. I hope and pray a sense of justice to prevail. Amen. Website www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com | Also Check Israel Palestine Confederation a pragmatic solution

Thursday, March 5, 2015

This gives good hope that Israel is moving away from being an apartheid state.Mike Ghouse# # #http://news.yahoo.com/rise-pragmatic-arab-politician-shakes-israeli-politics-180033312.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=fb

By KARIN LAUB

Aymen Odeh, representative of the disadvantaged

JERUSALEM (AP) — A charismatic Arab politician, who confidently jousts with Jewish rivals on TV and wants to build a broad Arab-Jewish "alliance of the disadvantaged," has emerged as one of the biggest surprises of Israel's election campaign.

Ayman Odeh, a 40-year-old lawyer, heads the Joint List, a recently established alliance of four small, largely Arab-backed parties. He believes the unprecedented union could dramatically increase Arab turnout at the polls and clout in Israel's parliament, transforming national politics.

Odeh's inclusive leadership style also signals a new confidence among younger Arabs, less conflicted than their parents and grandparents about their place in Israel, analysts say.

Odeh burst onto the national scene last week in a TV debate ahead of March 17 parliament elections. Ultranationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman repeatedly tried to provoke Odeh, the only Arab at the table, claiming Arab politicians "represent terror groups" seeking to destroy Israel from within and berating him as a "fifth column."

Odeh didn't take the bait. Smiling, he noted that his alliance is running well ahead of Lieberman's struggling faction, with polls predicting it could emerge as the third largest group in parliament.

Debating in fluent if accented Hebrew, Odeh said he is deeply rooted in the region and casually underscored his ties to the Holy Land by citing from the Old Testament's Book of Proverbs: "He who digs a pit (for others) will fall into it."

That was also a dig at Lieberman who had successfully pushed legislation last year to raise the threshold for entry to parliament — a move Arab politicians suspect was meant to keep their small parties out of parliament. It seems to have backfired, instead prompting Odeh's Arab-Jewish Hadash party and the three Arab parties to band together into something that may be greater than the sum of its parts.

The alliance has galvanized Arab voters, with polls saying turnout could be several percentage points higher than in 2013, when just 56 percent of eligible Arabs voters cast ballots, about 10 points below the national average.

In this Sunday, March 1, 2015 photo, Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, an alliance of four small A …

The Joint List, latest polls say, seems set to win 13 seats in the fractured 120-member Knesset, coming in third behind the center-left Zionist Union and the rightist Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Odeh has said his goal is 15 seats.

A strong showing of the Joint List would make it harder for Netanyahu to build a ruling coalition — and bringing down the premier is one of Odeh's main goals. However, he says the Joint List would also not formally join a coalition with the Zionist Union, led by Netanyahu's two main challengers, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.

"The agenda of any government will be a Zionist agenda. It will continue with the occupation, it will continue with the settlements," Odeh told The Associated Press. "We can't be part of such a government."

Indeed, no Arab party has ever been formally in an Israeli coalition — although they have been critical to propping up center-left governments of the past. This time, with a perhaps bigger bloc in parliament, the Arabs' tacit backing would be especially crucial for the center-left to be able to unseat Netanyahu.

For now, Odeh hopes the Joint List could lead the parliamentary opposition and that its legislators would be able to demand membership in important committees.

Mainly, Odeh wants to build an "alliance of the disadvantaged" among Arabs and Jews. He said arguments about Israel's nature — a Jewish state or a state for all its citizens — fail to recognize the more meaningful division, between rich and poor.

"This is a state of the tycoons against all the disadvantaged in the country," he said.

In this Sunday, March 1, 2015 photo, Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, an alliance of four small A …

In the TV debate, he urged Arieh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, to join forces on shared concerns.

Shas supporters, many low-income, are typically hard-line on Palestinian statehood, but Odeh argued that such differences shouldn't prevent ad hoc alliances. Deri said he is open to the idea.

Such pragmatism appeals to many Arab voters, seemingly more concerned about winning equal rights in Israel than seeing a Palestinian state established next door.

Israel's Arab citizens, who make up about 20 percent of a population of 8.2 million, are descendants of Palestinians who remained in their homes during the Mideast war over Israel's 1948 creation, when many others fled or were expelled. They retain ties with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967, and strongly identify with dreams to set up a Palestinian state in those territories.

But domestic concerns are often more powerful, with Arabs in Israel complaining of long-standing official discrimination.

"We want the Joint List to work on all our problems, to represent our issues in the Knesset," said Dina Mahameed, a 32-year-old nurse from the town of Umm al-Fahm, citing better job opportunities as one of her priorities.

The Joint List, established in January, has cobbled together a shared platform, despite deep differences between socialists, Palestinian nationalists and traditional Islamists on issues such as the role of women and religion in society.

Odeh's Hadash is a veteran socialist party in Israel that emphasizes Arab-Jewish cooperation.

Odeh grew up in a Muslim family but describes himself as someone who has transcended the narrow confines of ethnicity and religion that still loom large in the region. The only Muslim in a Christian school, he proudly notes he got an A in New Testament studies on his high school final exams.

At age 23, he was elected to the municipal council of the Arab-Jewish port city of Haifa. In 2006, he became secretary-general of Hadash.

Meeting with Jewish activists from Hadash this week, he tried to allay concerns that the new alliance would dilute the party's principles, such as gender equality.

Avraham Burg, a former parliament speaker from the center-left Labor Party who endorsed Hadash this year, said he was initially skeptical about the Joint List but is now keeping an open mind, based on assurances from Odeh.

Danny Danon, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, is waiting to see what policies the Joint List pursues.

He noted that one of the Joint List's leading members is Haneen Zoabi who has expressed understanding for Palestinian militants who kidnapped and killed three Israeli teens last year, comments that outraged many Israelis. If Odeh follows "the path of Zoabi, you will find us fighting his platform," Danon said.

Burg said the Joint List can transform politics, provided it doesn't fall apart after the elections.

"We will witness a new landscape for the entire democratic camp in Israel in which Israeli Arabs are no longer excluded as pariahs," he predicted.

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The real threat to the peace process between Israel and Palestine stems from their inability to look at their own policies critically. It is time to quit blaming and start finding solutions. Damn it, the leaders ought to be ashamed of themselves if they cannot look in the eyes of Palestinian and Israeli Children and committ to give them a better life.

The leaders need to learn that, they cannot have peace and security when they keep threatening others around them, period.

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Jews have a need to be understood and be acknowledged of their eternal security needs, not the military, but mental security where they can put their guards down and live their life in peace.

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Palestinians have a need to be understood. They have suffered immeasurably, no human should be stripped of his or her hope and dignity; hope to have a family, work and own a house and call a place their homeland.

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Our Presidents need to seriously look at what works. They need to have the vision for peace. They must understand that it may be going against the general opinion and must take bold steps and produce peace for the people of Israel and Palestine. It will save lives and brings peace to them and takes a burden off us.

We must protect Israel, our ally; however, if that protection is based on injustice to either Palestinians or the Jews, our integrity becomes questionable. We need to be above reproach and seek justice for one and all.

Mighty empires can crush the weak for a short term; in the long run every one goes down the tube. We cannot rob anyone and live with a good conscience.

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The Words

Words are the most powerful weapons of mass destruction. Just about every war and every conflict in the history of mankind has started out with a choice of wrong words.

There was a time when diplomats were trained in the art of speaking and the art of negotiating. Their whole purpose was to bring results through a dialogue.

Power makes one arrogant, and that arrogance translates into treatement of others in less than equal fashion, the mightier may bully and make their way for the moment, but in the back of their minds, they know they have to live with caution every minute of their life, as the oppresse will pounce in the moment of vulnerability.

Let our words become the mitigators of conflict and not aggravaotors - Mike Ghouse

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Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and the public. He is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics of pluralism, cohesive societies, Politics, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace. Over a thousand articles have been published on the topics and two of his books are poised to be released on Pluralism and Islam. Mike's work is reflected in 4 website's and 27 Blogs indexed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find all of his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com

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Peace is attainable and we should not give up on it. The Jews deserve security and the Palestinians the hope. Both deserve peace and security.

"Peace hinges on hopes for the Palestinians and security for the Israelis, anything short of justice will not produce sustainable peace" - If Jews and Muslims can take the position that we cannot have peace when others around us don't and work on first removing bias and stereotyping from their own minds, conflicts will fade and solutions emerge. (more on left panel) Mike Ghouse

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Sixty years have gone by and yet we do not have hope for the Palestinians and Peace for the Israelis. Is it because we have been coerced to listen to the Hawks, who revel in death and destruction of the other?

The Israelis, the Palestinians and the Americans must insist on electing the leaders who will achieve peace without rejoicing the other's destruction. Any one who talks war must be asked to step down at once. The Billions we give them must be tied to their ability to bring peace.